Barbie Perkins-Cooper, Author

Dearest Readers:

Happy New Year. May your new year, 2018 bring you happiness, love, bonding with family and friends, good health, prosperity and success.

New Year’s Day is a day to reflect over the last year. A day to change what could not be changed in 2017. A  day to give thanks to God for a new day and year. A day to make resolutions before they are broken!

To all of my readers, I wish you the best. I pledge to step away from social media since it can steal quality time from a writer’s life.  Today, I shall clean off my desk, in preparation to write again.

No doubt, I’ll have a busy day today. Cooking standing rib roast, baked potatoes and green beans. No, I’m not having the ‘traditional’ South Carolina dish of:

Hopping John – since moving to Charleston, I’ve made this rice and beans dish yearly. This year, I will not serve it. Rice has the tendency to choke me. Enough said there.

As for the greens – green beans are definitely green, and they certainly taste better than collards or turnips!

I’ve never cared for Hopping John, collards or turnips anyway!

Here’s to a New Year. Hopefully, a better, healthier year for this household.  Today, I pray for our country. Our safety in a Nation that is divided with racism and hatred. I detest the word “hate” and do my best not to say it, or feel it.

May 2018 be a year of love. May our soldiers who are in harm’s way be safe. May our police officers be safe and may citizens stop hating those with a bit of authority who do their best to protect us.

Let us all work together to make our Nation the greatest country in the world. Happy 2018!